witching-hour
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Detailed reference entry for the English word "witching-hour", 13-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "witching-hour" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "witching-hour" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
The verdict
“witching hour” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun — the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
Dominant Wiktionary sense: Often preceded by the: midnight, when witches and other supernatural beings were thought to be active, and to which bad luck was ascribed; also (generally), the middle of the night, when unfortunat...
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Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | witching hour |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈwɪt͡ʃɪŋ ˌaʊə/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “witching hour” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for witching hour is 13 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwɪt͡ʃɪŋ ˌaʊə/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for witching hour in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From witching (“of or pertaining to witchcraft or sorcery, or to witches or sorcerers”, adjective) + hour. Sense 1 (“midnight”) was popularized by the reference to the “witching time of night” in the play Hamlet (written c. 1599–1602; published 1603) by the… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is witching hour, spelled W-I-T-C-H-I-N-G- -H-O-U-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Often preceded by the: midnight, when witches and other supernatural beings were thought to be active, and to which bad luck was ascribed; also (generally), the middle of the night, when unfortunate things are thought more likely to occur; the dead of night.
- 2A time of day, usually in the early evening, when babies and young children are more fretful and likely to cry or fuss.
- 3The final hour of trading each month during which certain stock options expire, leading to a higher trading volume and greater price volatility.
- 4The hour between 3:00 and 3:59 a.m., associated with demons.
Etymology
From witching (“of or pertaining to witchcraft or sorcery, or to witches or sorcerers”, adjective) + hour. Sense 1 (“midnight”) was popularized by the reference to the “witching time of night” in the play Hamlet (written c. 1599–1602; published 1603) by the English playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616): see the quotation.
This word in other languages
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “witching hour”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-I-T-C-H-I-N-G- -H-O-U-R — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈwɪt͡ʃɪŋ ˌaʊə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index: